The complete drawings of Hieronymus Bosch

So little is known of Bosch’s life that the symbolism of his strange and difficult paintings, once readily accessible as part of a living religious vernacular, has for centuries remained ambiguous. His undated works have only recently been satisfactorily organized an analyzed, leading us to see this artist, who the Surrealist claimed as an ancestor of irrational art, as an independent ‘religious realist’ observing a spiritually unstable and superstitious society. The innovator of the psychological secular painting which gave rise to the great Dutch school of the 17th century, Bosch emerged without training as one of the most influential artists of all time.

Presented here are the complete drawings of Bosch, many invaluable as studies for finished paintings or records of lost ones. Others, beautiful composed and original, stand on their own as great works of art.